Barclays bosses lied about Qatar payments, court told

Top executives at Barclays agreed to lie about the payment of hundreds of millions of pounds to Qatar in 2008 in order to secure “vital” investments for the bank and avoid a public bailout that would place it under UK government control, a court has heard. The claims were made in an opening statement by prosecutors for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the second trial against three former Barclays bosses. It is the only criminal case in Britain to be brought against banking executives for their actions during the financial crisis. The former Barclays investment banking chief Roger Jenkins, the former head of the ... (full story)

tweet at 9:08am: EXPLOSION SHAKES SYRIAN TOWN OF RAS AL AIN || SMOKE SEEN RISING ABOVE SYRIA'S RAS AL AIN || SOUND OF PLANES HEARD OVER SYRIA'S RAS AL AIN - CNN TURK REPORTER tweet at 9:07am: BREAKING — Turkish F-16s hit targets in Syria’s Ras Al-ayn, the Syria operation has begun — Turkish media reports tweet at 9:16am: The Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Syrian National Army, just launched #OperationPeaceSpring against PKK/YPG and Daesh terrorists in northern Syria. Our mission is to prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border, and to bring peace to the area.Turkish troops launch offensive into northern Syria, says Erdogan Turkish troops have begun an offensive in northern Syria, which could bring them into direct conflict with Kurdish-led forces allied to the United States. The move was announced by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey wants to create a "safe zone" cleared of a Kurdish militia that will also house some of Turkey's 3.6 million Syrian refugees. Donald Trump controversially withdrew US troops ahead of the action but says Turkey may face economic consequences. The Kurds were key US allies in defeating the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in Syria. Mr Trump's withdrawal of the few dozen US troops in the border area was seen as a "stab in the back" by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and drew condemnation even from the president's Republican allies. He responded to the